Location: Litchfield, Connecticut

Under the cover of darkness on a tense night in 1798, James Mars, an eight-year-old slave living in northwest Connecticut, was stirred from sleep by his parents and quietly whisked away from his master's farm. To add insult to injury, his father had stolen their master's horses and had them attached to the cart that would carry the family to safety. When the master, Rev. Thompson of Canaan Township,...